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"It was a pleasure and an honor to meet you, (Mil)dred! You brought so much authentic passion, beauty and integrity to the event (Transgender Unity Banquet 2011) and reminded us to just be human." - Oliver Blumer - Board member of Youth First Texas in Dallas, Texas www.youthfirsttexas.org, and Vice Chair of Transgender Education Network of Texas, Board. www.transtexas.org
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"MilDred, Your performance last night was exciting and educational. You really held everyone’s attention and gave us so much to think about. The turnout was great, which really shows the hunger for new ideas and information that challenge our notions of gender. Thank you so much for coming to the University of Houston." - Beverly McPhail
"milDRED is Dangerous!" - Broadway Director and Producer George Faison
"milDRED Gerestant brought them one step closer to losing the inhibitions, prejudices, and stereotypes they come into contact with daily." Art Start Kids/Youth Program
(done in a homeless shelter for children and their families)
"milDRED has a sensitivity that is precious. " - Nick Ashford from Ashford and Simpson
"From Flip Wilson as Geraldine to Martin Lawrence as Sheneneh, men have made tons of money as drag performers. Now it’s the women’s turn, and one of the world’s leading character actors is Haitian-American milDRED Gerestant, the artist formerly known as DRED." - Port of Harlem Magazine
"You have such an amazingly perfectly shaped shaved head...amazing..." - actress Kim Cattrall of Sex And The City.
"You changed at the cellular level, you're extraordinary..." - Daniel Alexander Jones, singer and performance artist.
"MilDred is Change we can believe in." - Rochester, NY
"milDRED is an alchemist and artist, a spiritual teacher, and a political activist. She will wake you up, make you think, and open your heart to the possibilities of LOVING ALL of who YOU / WE are! Thank you milDRED! You embody what it means to walk in beauty! - Sally N. MacNichol, Director of Programs of CONNECT: We are dedicated to the prevention and elimination of family and gender violence.
"God has truly given you many talents. Continue to allow Him to use you. I love all that you are doing....in your unique little way. By your encouraging words and in viewing all that you do has truly inspired me to pursue my motivational speaking." - Nurse Burr, Houston, TX
"She is renowned as the queen of disguise that mimes men's roles and looks for masculinity in women. Using theatre, dance, film, cultural history, LOTS of humor, milDRED breaks down racial and gender stereotypes, and conventional gender roles created in society hoping to create a better understanding and acceptance of the beauty of the expression of one's individual truth." - from city of women in Croatia
"Mildred is an individual who walks with exceptional dignity, grace, and beauty. I feel that her performances inspire people to self acceptance in a profound way, and that the self-acceptance she encourages through her performances is what brings peace to individuals, their families, their communities, and their world. She is a channel for divine inspiration and there is a deep, strong, very loving ancestral presence that is communicated through her when she performs. She heals as she performs, and it was a blessing to be able to see her in action. I hope many many people from all walks of life get the opportunity to receive the blessing of seeing Mildred in action." - Kristen Woodruff (Shuktaluk), human being, performance artist, ceremonial facilitator, and tantric yogini
"Gerestant has been developing her gender-bending, misogyny attacking character since 1995. "I am very much into breaking down these ‘rules/stories’ that still affect how people, especially women, feel about how we see ourselves, what we think about ourselves, how people see us," Gerestant said in a recent interview with Liberty Press, about her work. With music, body language and a scant number of costume changes right before the audience’s eyes, magic is worked to change a 1970’s era chauvinistic and pimp-like Dred back into the exotic Mildred, all the while communicating a feminist message. "I parody males images such as P. Diddy., Shaft, and Superfly to take away power from the misogyny and sexism that their images refer to," she explained." - Libertypress.net
"Many of our female students feel compelled to seek revenge on anyone that they think is "talking about them behind their backs". "DRED Love Experience" was a real awakening for students who never learned to love themselves. MilDRED Gerestant, a Haitian-American gender-illusionist, left a powerful impression with our female students when she said to them: "Statements made about you behind your back is not your business." In Mildred’s dance, poems and spoken words, McLaughlin female students were made to understand the importance of being who you are and loving yourself." - McLaughlin High School
"WoW! Your portfolio is so diverse & boldly beautiful, whimsically funny & slyly entertaining. The video excerpts from your performances are quite powerful! Your ability to like a shape shifter, transform your self on stage are both phenomenal & expressive of true genius. You have the ability to turn the simplest of your attributes & even your most pronounced features into a surprising combination personal charisma & primal animation. What a beautiful being I continue to see unfolding from you, from something inside myself that resembles such familiar parts of me that I would hard pressed to not acknowledge a connection even if I were foolishly inclined to so. Thank you for sharing these parts of you with us Beloved! Love & Light, I send to you again & again." - Jawanza Amennun aka Sehu
"milDRED's work contributes to the evolution of our culture, and pertains to the healing of men and women." - Mary Alice Bailey
"milDRED is better then Wesley Snipes in To Wong Foo!" - Cinderella Marin
"milDRED's octave aura can heal a child's heart because her octave auras are tender. She has a tall giant of a base angel. She had the tonalities that heals a child's heart from child abuse. To bear witness to the metamorphisis of the path of courage to empowerment, is to bear witness to the enlightening performance of the journey of milDRED, the artist formerly known as DRED." - Kim Nimoy, Vice President, Director of Intercultural Relations, Director of Domestic Violence Awareness Prevention at www.voicesinthetreetops.org - Promoting global peace, cultural intergrity through the performing arts."
Director Passion says, "milDRED is a metaphysical approach to gender."
"Beautiful, Beautiful." - Marleigh, 2 year old going on 60. "milDRED Gerestant's own act is a gender-bending roller coaster ride alternating between man and woman, outrageous and serious, ironic and sincere. It also preaches the message of self-love as if Eddie Murphy were to perform Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues... milDRED Gerestant uses sexuality as a departure point to preach the message of tolerance, acceptance, and diversity. While a lot of her act uses hilarity to demonstrate that femininity and masculinity are not set in stone, she hopes that once her audiences realize the multiplicity of beings in themselves, the various shades of man and woman that is in all of us, regardless of sex, then we are more apt to realize and accept all the myriad differences of those around us." - The Korean Herald "MilDred calls attention to the oppression that results from society's rigid ideas of gender (not to mention race and religion) as she morphs from Shaft into P. Diddy quicker than you can ask, "Who's that, uh, girl?" You won't believe your eyes." - Emmitt Thrower. Artist Ife Franklin writes about milDRED, ""Sister... you give me hope.. you teach me by example to NEVER GIVE UP ... to continue to do the work that I was born to do...THANK YOU."
"you are truly unique.......you touch your audience in both the visual and spiritual sense......thank you for helping us understand our selves a little bit better." - http://www.joshuasuzanne.com/
"Next time you see P. Diddy, Shaft and Superfly on stage, take a closer look underneath that black suit, top hat, afro or leather jacket. That isn't a macho mack daddy busting moves up there - that's a woman, baby. Damn right. Famed milDRED Gerestant, the artist formerly known as DRED." - Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
"Your performance changed my world." -Michelle Carnes
"A very well gifted and talented sistah!" - Momma D, poet
"I want to tell you how much I appreciate milDRED's free flowing gender bending Spirit." - Fan
"milDRED Love Experience was a real awakening for students who never learned to love themselves." - McLaughlin High School
"Your work, what you talk about, is essential to the village." - Dyron Holmes, People's Monastery
"Exquisitely entertaining!" - Director Passion Hansome
"MilDRED is a natural talent. She has many sides to her." - Director Gabriel Baur film "Venus Boyz"
"Ms. Gerestant' s performance critiques macho posing but also appropriate its power." - The New York Times
" Performance Art has been lying somewhat dormant since the mid-90's, but now thank goodness it's being revived by the art-as-life/life-as-art gender-warping, heart-breaking, toe-tapping, libido-zinging work of Dréd. Dréd is poetry in motion, sexual energy incarnate, and paradox in person. Ze is the front line of the new wave of performance art, and hir work demands to be seen" - Kate Bornstein, author & performance artist
" Her sophisticated blend of styles raised the bar of expectation and anticipation for drag king performances . Staging Activism
"milDRED Gerestant, the artist formerly known as DRED, is sexy, charismatic and incredibly talented. Watch her perform on stage and be exhilarated. - Pratibha Parmar, filmmaker of "Warrior Marks", "A Place of Rage", and "The Righteous Babes"
"I often think of your performance, and find myself trying to explain the beauty you personified during your performance. I just wanted to let you know you are a beautiful person and I thank you for your art, and your interpretation of life in general. I wish that I could see that performance over and over again. Just think after all these years, you are still very much in my head. Thank you again for being the person you are and spreading such a beautiful message." - SUNY Plattsburgh student
"Among these hard working actresses will be the richly talented, multi-spirited, performance artist and activist known as milDRED Gerestant. This woMan becomes some of the most intense black male characters ever created. milDRED transforms into Shaft, Sly Stone and Isaac Hayes to name a few. As milDRED, rock solid ideas of gender are shattered as the brother dazzles audiences. These shows evoke on lookers to reconsider stereotypes about race and gender roles and are not just about imitating the "opposite" sex. milDRED's performances are special in that through the highly charged funky shows, self-expression is celebrated." - allspicemagazine.com
"milDRED alone seems to have located a rich terrain of exaggerated maleness. When her MCs and pimps hit the stage, you can feel the energy of an inspired nightlife creation." - Nathan Lee - The New York Sun
"...with the exception of milDRED Gerestant,alias DRED, whose charismatic spoofs of Shaft-style maleness combine canny XY deconstruction and alluring stage presence." - Melissa Anderson - The Village Voice
"Mildred/Dred parodies a number of male stereotypes within the Black Community. Her choices are risky and perceptive, critical and witty. Her act is mesmerizing." - Karla Jay PhD - Director of Women's Studies at Pace University and author of Tales of the Lavender Menace: A Memoir of Liberation
"...the amazingly talented New York drag king...Dred took us on a musical tour
of the past three decades, complete with fabulous costume changes." - Diva Magazine
London , England
"Actress milDRED Gerestant started the act as a sexy young man in black formal wear and vogued his way into a totally awesome ‘70’s superfly look, big afro and all...The apple symbolism was both obvious and fabulous. He then showed that she is as much of a hot woman as a hot man, by stripping down into a sexy lady character. Altogether an impressive display of cross gender play."- In-shows Performance Art Reviews
"mlDRED, an African-American king well-known in New York’s downtown night-life scene, is memorable for her carefully groomed mustache and goatee, and her fondness for pimp-chic attire straight out of "Shaft." - New York Post
"...milDRED represents the fluid boundaries ... I include her in my section on Denaturalized Masculinity because she combines appropriation, critique and alternative masculinity in her presentation.." - Judith Halberstam, author of Female Masculinity and The Drag King Book.
"milDRED...is in a league all her own. She chooses from a diverse bunch of African-American masculinities, from a superlfy Isaac Hayes to a badass rapper to the andro king himself, The Artist (Prince). Her performances are sharp, thoughtful, and sexy."- Tristan Taormino for The Village Voice
"I am not sure what to call you now after the performance...I now get such a wonderful sense of Dred and Mildred as two separate, but intertwined and very complex people...I think you are really pushing your work in a new direction, and I look forward to seeing more of it...." - New York, NY
"milDRED’s act is a high energy blend of soul, hip-hop, disco, and funk." - ArtVoice, Buffalo, NY
"At "Divercity," ... the Haitian-American star actress DRED Love created a remarkable gender collage in motion... out of a trunkload of hairpieces, costumes, props, and sexy, dead-on body language . With muscles and curves... goatee, and a surprise between her shapely legs, she danced a manifesto of freedom and self-respect."- Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Village Voice