Her Story, Set to Music
This music video was born from one woman’s journey — seven decades of living quietly as someone else, and the quiet courage it took to finally come home to herself. It has moved audiences and earned recognition for the story it tells and the artistry with which it tells it.
Golden State Film Festival: Won Grand Prize for Music Video.
IndieFest Film Awards: Won Award of Recognition.
Med-Limes International Short Film Festival: Selected for the “Quality Gender” stream in Salerno, Italy.
ABOUT RITA
Her Journey
My life is transparent.
Yes — I spent more than seven decades masquerading as a boy, and then a man. I played that role skillfully and sincerely. After all, I saw no viable alternative. The desperate aspiration I carried — to become female — was the best-kept secret of my life. The options displayed by Christine Jorgensen and Renee Richards in their time were viable, but charged with a level of social notoriety and community rejection I was unwilling to embrace.
By the turn of this century, values and social norms had shifted in America. The Gay Liberation movement created space for the trans cohort of the LGBTQ community to express our authenticity. Social and cultural leaders like Jennifer Boylan, Christine Hallquist, and Kaitlyn Jenner rearranged our social furniture by publicly transitioning to their female selves. And I knew the time had come for me to take the plunge.
“It was a change that was forty or fifty years late, yet somehow still right on time.”
When I awoke from my gender confirmation surgery, I experienced no epiphany nor depression. I was simply aware of a barely perceptible realignment of my life’s orientation — a subtle adjustment delivered with profound accuracy. I look forward to the rest of my life, and hope to make meaningful contributions to my community.
Her Work & World
My chosen profession has always been agriculture — specifically, horticulture. Since my late twenties I’ve dedicated my career to a diversity of horticultural specialties: commercial mushroom farming, tropical fruit sourcing, and organic heirloom tomato production, among others. Starting out as a homesteader in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, I went on to earn a B.S. in Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Later I became a Certified Crop Advisor, Certified Professional Agronomist, and Certified Professional Horticulturist. Most recently, I was qualified as a Technical Service Provider for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
This ex-hippie has acquired some credibility in her field.
“Nearly five decades working in agriculture led to the discovery of my life’s mission: fixing agriculture’s flaws.”
Beyond the fields, I’ve always valued learning. Extensive global travel has fueled a lifelong preoccupation with languages — I speak German, Spanish, Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic at various levels of fluency. I’m currently enrolled at my local Persian Cultural Center, deepening my command of Farsi. And for many years, astrology has been a favorite pastime — not for predicting the future, but as a roadmap for the present. It has fortified my personal optimism.
THE BOOK
Reimagining Your Garden — coming soon
After nearly five decades working the land, Rita has written the book she always wished existed. Reimagining Your Garden introduces Transformational Gardening — a hybrid method that weaves together organic and regenerative practices with the most evolved composting technology available. The result is a comprehensive ecological approach to gardening that solves common garden problems without chemical shortcuts.
But this is more than a gardening manual. Woven throughout the narrative is the account of Rita’s career journey — from homesteader to USDA-certified advisor, and from decades of quiet endurance to her full, authentic self. It is a book about growing things, and about growing into who you were always meant to be.
Reimagining Your Garden is the vanguard of a project to influence America’s fifty million home gardeners to practice comprehensive ecological gardening. Rita is actively seeking a publisher to bring this vision to readers nationwide.
Stay updated on publication — or connect with Rita about publishing opportunities.
AGRICULTURE CONSULTING
With nearly fifty years of hands-on experience in horticulture and agronomy — and credentials spanning the Certified Crop Advisor, Certified Professional Agronomist, Certified Professional Horticulturist, and USDA Technical Service Provider designations — Rita brings rare depth to her consulting practice.
Her work focuses on ecological and regenerative approaches: diagnosing soil health, redesigning growing systems, and helping farmers and gardeners move away from chemical dependency toward long-term sustainability. Whether you’re a home gardener, small farm, or commercial operation, Rita brings both scientific rigor and decades of field wisdom to every engagement.
