Sixteen years along, SOMArts Cultural Center’s Day of the Dead exhibition is alive and kicking — and it’s evolved into much more than simply a series of traditional altars devoted to the departed. In the care of local arts legend Rene Yáñez, 73, who has curated SOMArts’ Dia de los Muertos exhibition since its start, the event has become an opportunity to make art that not only mirrors the city’s diverse communities, but is also charged with personal — and political — meaning. Reflecting on 2015’s theme “Today Is the Shadow of Tomorrow,” the kids working with artist Andrea Juarez of Communities in Harmony Advocating For Learning and Kids are meditating on those lost to gun violence and police brutality by adorning a mannequin with hashtags like #blacklivesmatter and images of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and others lost closer to home. [...] poet Adrian Arias and El Tecolote’s staff will assemble altars for the writers, Yáñez has organized readings, and artists like Ana Rivero Rossi will wrap their imaginations around related concepts — she’ll create a “Narcoguernica” using Mexican newspaper reports on drug traffickers. Opening event with artist market and opening procession and performances by Loco Bloco, Denise Benavidez and Adrian Arias Oct.