Brother Ed “Umoja” Herman gave me my first opportunity to share Western Legends on a monthly basis by giving me a 30-minute audio segment on his Sisters in Harmony show, which we did for three years. That was the precursor to our current Wild West Diversity Livestream. Thank you, Brother Ed.

Edmund “Umoja” Herman, known to many as Brother Umoja, is the founder of Umoja Communications Company Int. (UCCI), the Piton International Film Festival (PIFF), Sisters in Harmony (SiH), Speaking to Harmony (Blog Talk Radio Show), and Umoja Communications Company Network (UCCN TV).

UCCI began with its introduction into the world of media with Umoja Photo in 1991. Since its inception, Brother Umoja has had the honor of being the personal photographer for the Reverend Al Sharpton for 6-years, and working with the late Johnny Cochran, Betty Shabazz, Coretta Scott King, and many others. Brother Umoja has also been sought out to capture the images of numerous historical, political, musical, and sporting events worldwide.

Throughout the years, within his multi-media company, Brother Umoja has had the pleasure of interviewing and/or establishing working relationships with individuals from various media genres such as director Warrington Hudlin (Boomerang, House Party, etc.), actor Antonio Fargas (Starsky & Hutch, Foxy Brown, etc.), South African International music Sensation Lira, the Commodores, the legendary Freddie McGregor, and Marcia Griffiths, and many others.

After years of networking and establishing ongoing relationships with those in the film industry, Brother Umoja also began working with individuals who started or had ongoing film festivals.

In 2014, UCCI launched the Piton Film Festival (PFF), in honor of the Piton Peaks in St. Lucia, the homeland of Brother Umoja. After the resounding global interest from filmmakers and producers of creative works (i.e. features, documentaries, musicians, visual artists, authors, etc.) to have their works showcased at the festival, PFF was rebranded as the Piton International Film Festival (PIFF). Along with this rebranding, came a change in focus from being a competition to focusing on collaboration with a 12-month initiative to assist with global exposure, monetization, and education of film production.

Since, this change, PIFF is now actively working with and promoting hundreds of actors, singers, musicians, filmmakers, producers, directors, etc. from over 65 different countries around the world. Brother Umoja has also established two offices in Africa (Zimbabwe and Uganda) and has started PIFF Africa. This brand of PIFF will focus on the creative industry and personnel based in Africa.

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In addition, Brother Ed has been a long-time participant in martial arts. The martial arts community has inducted Brother Ed into a number of Halls of Fame for his past 20 years of work in their communities. New York City Black firefighters have awarded him their service award for his work with them after the 9/11 attack in New York City.

As an active member of society and the global community at large, Brother Herman enjoys networking, sports, traveling, and connecting with people across the globe to make this world a better place. You can connect with him at the following places.

Umoja Communications Company Inc.

Piton International Film Festival

www.umojaphoto.com

www.pitonfilmfestival.org

uccnumoja@gmail.com

201-951-5144

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Wild West Diversity

Living Legend Brother Ed "Umoja" Herman