{"id":95806,"date":"2026-06-01T06:46:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T05:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=95806"},"modified":"2026-06-01T06:46:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T05:46:42","slug":"the-transformative-gardener-we-speak-with-rita-crevoshay-about-ritas-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2026\/06\/the-transformative-gardener-we-speak-with-rita-crevoshay-about-ritas-song\/","title":{"rendered":"The Transformative Gardener: We Speak With Rita Crevoshay About ‘Rita’s Song’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rita Crevoshay spoke to Essentially Pop about the new single, ‘Rita’s Song<\/a>‘, that her cousin Michael A. Levine wrote about her life and transition.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

How did gardening first become such a big part of your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advent of Organic Gardening and Farming was a countercultural phenomenon that emerged as a key issue in the late \u201860s. It illustrated a vulnerability in the global agricultural system and offered yet another opportunity to rebuild our social structure, in this case, integrated within the values of Environmentalism. The appeal was irresistible. An opportunity to replace our toxic food system drove my interest and ambition. Gardening as a homesteading experience in Vermont\u2019s Northeast Kingdom was the logical point of departure, but a university degree confirmed my arrival as a global agriculturist. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did your \u201cTransformational Gardening\u201d idea start to take shape?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My client in the Chicago suburbs, the Deep Roots Project, called me in crisis a few years ago.\u00a0 All of the soil they had delivered to their home-gardening clients resulted in crop failure. Panic and despair colored their request for a solution. The mixture contained manure-based thermophilic (heat-loving) compost and some topsoil of questionable provenance. I advised the client to use only the compost. They did. A few months later I visited their gardens and viewed unprecedentedly abundant crops. Subsequently, I adjusted the growing protocol by integrating Organic and Regenerative growing methods. Transformational Grdening was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has your personal transition shaped the way you see growth and change?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gender transition realigned my life by liberating me from habits and practices that I had installed early in life to defend myself against the possibility of being found out as a \u201csexual deviant\u201d. Those defensive behaviors were effective but were inherently self-limiting. They made me a smaller person, limited my goals, and shrunk my horizons. Now I feel unencumbered by imposed behaviors and more capable than ever to manifest my dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it like hearing your story turned into a song?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my Cuz picked me up at the hospital, I felt cloaked in anonymity. My operation was performed with exceptional competence but seamless privacy. Within an hour of arrival at his house, he gifted me the audio version of Rita\u2019s Song. It surprised me to discover how well he understood me. It momentarily embarrassed me to be discovered in my vulnerability. Though the audio exchange was just between the two of us I felt exposed to the world. The coming weeks would prove that to be the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it mean to you to fully embrace your name and identity?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divesting myself of a life of deceit was one of the greatest rewards of my transition. Embracing my true identity, shifting from Ralph to Rita, and adjusting my personal presentation accordingly, fulfilled a long-buried dream. It was Pinocchio\u2019s \u201cwish upon a star\u201d fulfilled. A lesson, at 76, that \u201cdreams can come true, it can happen to you\u2026\u201d. A lesson that Disney was maybe not exactly producing fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was it like working with the team behind the song?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first I felt like a spectator. Cuz\u2019 Michael had done all the heavy lifting. Then I told Cuz\u2019 Sam (Michael\u2019s brother, a longtime Nashville saxophonist) about the recording, and he contributed a brilliant sax background to the piece. In a family Zoom call, I made the na\u00efve suggestion that we convert the audio into a music video. I was warned of the high cost of such audacity. Michael reported to me a few days later that a colleague of his had volunteered to remake the audio version into a music video \u2013 at no charge! A few days later the producer, Marcelle Abela, delivered the video to my mailbox. Then, she called me, telling me to sit down, and informed me that the video had been selected for the Golden State Film Festival to be held at the Grauman Chinese Theater in Hollywood. She insisted that I attend. Things were moving fast. I attended the Grauman event (March, 2026). At the awards ceremony, Michael and\u00a0 I were called on stage as winners of the Grand Prize for Music Video!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you approach sharing your story through the music video?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything in my life is inextricably interconnected. My authenticity shift, my mission in agriculture, my high regard for astrology, my love of foreign languages. So I consider the video an introduction to my unconventional life. I resolved at the outset to share all details and to be responsibly transparent. Gender transformation was only part of a bigger story that dedicates the final chapters of my life to impacting agriculture with a transformation that releases it from the unhealthy embrace of toxic chemicals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope people take away from your book, song, and film together?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of their social orientation, people need to know themselves, know why they are on earth, and express their authenticity without hesitation or reservation. The Transgender phenomenon redresses society\u2019s myth of a binary world and restores diversity as the key to evolutionary security. My hope is for people to relax their personal anxieties enough to share the joy of their personal authenticity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this recognition and response mean to you now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognition benefits me most by opening previously unavailable channels of communication. It provides access to the public mind that was previously unavailable. It can help to move my social priorities to more urgent consideration among those concerned with environmental welfare and global soil health. Public response indicates initiation of committed communication. It typically results in constructive dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the music video for \u2018Rita\u2019s Song\u2019 below, and find out more about Michael A. Levine and Rafaela \u201cRita\u201d Crevoshay on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"RITA'S