Bashirah Perine, also known as Medina Sunrise, is a New Orleans native, griot, playwright, percussionist, and mother with a strong theater background. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Southern University A&M and advanced her playwriting skills at DePaul University in 2014.

Perine has performed in notable theater productions nationwide, including solo performances like *Hair Crownicles* at MATCH Theatre (Houston, TX) and MPAACT (Chicago, IL), as well as ensemble work in *Im Still A Woman* (MATCH Theatre, Houston, TX), *Crime Scene Anthology*, and *Beast Women Productions* (Collaboraction Theatre, Chicago, IL). She has also performed in *For Colored Girls...* (Columbia College, Chicago, IL) and *Katrina’s Footprints* (Hayden Theatre, Baton Rouge, LA).

A dedicated educator, Perine received her Texas Teacher Certification in Theater for grades EC-12 and has been teaching theater in Texas schools since 2016. In 2020, she founded *Broad Ambitions*, an organization that uses performance art to “share stories to heal the heart and cure the mind.”