Warren Wilson Alum Spotlight: Pepi Acebo
Harley Woods | November 17, 2022
A 17-year-old prospective student worked a job in Atlanta pretending to be 19 in order to provide for himself. Pepi Acebo enrolled in Warren Wilson College (WWC) for the fall semester of 1988, where his life took a turn for the better.
Special To The Echo : Asheville Made
Acebo did not have a traditional four-year experience at WWC. He attended from 1988-90, then again from 1992-94 and for a semester in 2002.
Acebo’s tales had great variety. They ranged from student arrests and protests at bubba parties. He referenced “green-haired-Terry” being expelled for selling drugs out of the security office to pay for college. Acebo even mentioned a suspicious character in Hendersonville known only to the campus as “Meat.”
His major area of study began as intercultural studies, which later became global studies after department restructuring.
Though not many on campus today are familiar with his name, Acebo set many firsts that still affect students today in a number of positive ways.
During his time at WWC, Acebo worked on a variety of crews. He became the first vegan/vegetarian chef in Gladfelter after having experience working in a vegan restaurant. His first entree was an eggplant parmesan.
Acebo later worked under the yearbook editor before being transferred to a different crew due to his frequent critiques and suggestions. The next year, however, he was appointed yearbook editor himself and had a crew of only “one and a half” people.
After working several transition crews such as heavy duty and computer crews, Acebo had the opportunity to work with the then Dean of Students, Louise Solomon, to restructure the student handbook.
Among the variety of firsts that decorate Acebo’s WWC history, one that lasts in the hearts of several generations is the origin of Sage Cafe.
The reason that Acebo and others chose the Sage basement as their location was in part due to the frequent damage and repairs necessary to the space. Because the space was still being used — for example by one student to fix an old motorcycle — Acebo struck up a plan.
“Clark Chapin, who was a student and the dorm director of Sage and a close friend of mine, had an idea to turn the basement into a live space,” Acebo said. “We did some wiring in there; he was on the electric crew and I was on the plumbing crew. We put in a sink and put in some outlets with some dimmers for some stage lights which were on loan from Kittredge thanks to Graham Paul [former theater director].”
The cafe was opened in conjunction with a play that was hosted in the basement. The cafe served cheesecake, bagels, cigarette singles and coffee. The cafe was run by volunteers with a tip jar only.
“The play was Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Acebo said. “Sunday, I opened up. Nobody knew. Monday, I opened up. Nobody knew. The people who knew were the people who were walking around at night and it just spread by word of mouth.”
Afterward, Chapin continued to schedule bands every weekend. Different people volunteered and took turns working late at night to continue holding the space for the campus night-owl community.
Though there were some encounters with the Buncombe County Health Department, the cafe ultimately made the appropriate adjustments in order to stay open. They later attained an assumed name certificate under “Jacob’s Impromptu Cafe,” named after an infant in the courthouse line who the students became very fond of while waiting in line for their license.
The legacy of Sage Cafe still stands today, though it has not yet again been opened for weekly use after the pandemic safety protocols required it to be shut down.
Acebo went on to create two other businesses beyond his time at WWC, one being a graphic design firm and the other being his current job as a children’s block builder.
The drive to change and bring improvements to the world around him was not abandoned after Acebo left WWC. What Acebo attributed to a WWC-born uniqueness and passion drove him to make meaningful change off campus as well.
During the Buncombe County primary elections of 2022, Acebo was on the ballot as a candidate for school board director of Asheville City Schools.
Despite his campaign, Acebo stated that he had no interest in politics. Acebo had participated in parent-teacher organizations as the schools his children attended. What drove him to campaign was an interaction he observed with children and early child-care providers which he deemed inappropriate.
“You want to use the lightest intervention possible because the lighter the intervention, the more the child is making the decision to do what is appropriate for the situation and the more the child can determine this appropriate decision making, the less intervention is needed later on,” Acebo said.
When Acebo’s child was in kindergarten, Acebo witnessed a high-intervention disciplinary method. Because Acebo had knowledge in early childhood development, he wanted to speak with those in charge to establish a common method of classroom management.
After watching consistent staff turnover and inconsistent or minimal attempts to provide new teachers with classroom management support, Acebo decided to put his name on the ballot.
Though he did not win the primary election, he continues to provide information and support whenever he can.
Acebo noted an experience before his enrollment at WWC that grounded him in the idea that anything was possible. He was accepted to a program in Durham as a 17-year-old that allowed him to connect with peers and learn much more than he had been able to at his high school in Atlanta.
To get into the program, Acebo had to meet with the director of the program and essentially tell him why his situation was special and why he should be accepted.
“That experience of taking a leap of faith, trying to accomplish something that was impossible and being successful… I look back on it and think of that as kind of a turning point that maybe made me more risk-tolerant and willing to try to do things that were impossible,” Acebo said. “Now still to this day, if someone tells me that something is impossible, my response will be ‘okay so how can we make this possible?’
Because WWC is a unique campus with such a small community, making change at the college seems more within reach to certain students like Acebo.
“That [experience] carried into my days at Warren Wilson with being the first vegetarian cook of the college, being the first yearbook editor of a nonstandard yearbook that wasn’t a Josten’s cookie-cutter thing, starting a clandestine cafe in the basement of a dorm that lasted — I guess it’s still there — more than 25 years,” Acebo said.
Despite his numerous accomplishments both at the college and beyond, circumstances in Acebo’s life have prevented him from obtaining his degree.
“I have enough credits to graduate, but when I took intro to geography, I was not great at memorizing all of the rivers in China,” Acebo said. “Sandra Hayeslet had us reading about 30 pages of journal articles every night. It was challenging, it was not a 1000-level course, at least not at Warren Wilson. The night before the midterm, somebody that I had returned to school with… he died of an overdose.”
The midterm then became a take-home exam.
“After 24 hours of being fairly incoherent and trying to do that, I never managed to… I turned in something but it was not quality work,” Acebo said. “So I didn’t pass the class and that was a requirement for my major. I don’t know if I need to retake intro to geography or appeal to the academic committee for a waiver.”
The parent of a now 14-year-old, graduating college has become a household joke and agreement.
“My kiddo has been teasing me about finishing up my degree at Warren Wilson because I have just that one-course intro to geography,” Acebo said. “Our agreement is, they’ll graduate from college if I graduate from college.”
Whether or not Acebo receives a formal degree, his presence and impact on campus will remain for decades to come.