As part of the center’s Wednesday-night performance series, Trista Beard, Amy Harmon, and Sarah Lafferty are heading up an age-21-and-over tribute to burlesque, the 80-year-old stage genre best known for bustiness, bodaciousness, and Tin Pan Alley raunch. The form, which was blessedly put to rest by the end of the ’40s, is a sort of sexualized vaudeville — a saucy circus act on stage.

Besides some R-rated stripping, A Tribute to Burlesque, which will set attendees back a modest $5, will include baton twirling, comedy acts, puppet shows, and performances by a dance troupe of 13 men and women. The trio spearheading the send-up are the founders, members, and champions of Boston’s year-old Burlesque Revival Association (BRA). Beard, Harmon, and Lafferty originally joined forces two years ago, when they formed the Art School Cheerleaders, a traveling troupe of pompon-sporting political activists spreading unlikely messages like “Go vote!”, “Go make art!”, and “Down with Jesse Helms!”

These days, they find that their messages are best delivered by peeling off everything but their pasties while seductively slithering to big-band music in their alter-ego personas — Charlotte Charles, Honey Holiday, and Busty Larue, respectively.

“It’s not about sex, it’s about sexuality,” Beard says. Pressed to clarify what exactly the difference is, she explains that the performers’ flirtatiousness is meant to be more feminist than sleazy, representing one of the many ways that women wield power — even as they are shedding their clothes. Beard argues that burlesque, with all its various and unclassifiable elements, is ripe for revival. “For something that’s so sexy, it’s so modest,” she says, sighing appreciatively. “It’s entertaining, titillating, and sweet.”

Entertaining? Questionable. Titillating? Likely enough. But sweet? Well, that’s where they get into sticky matters. Though organizers say they hope to spark the question “Why did burlesque ever go away?”, another question is more likely to arise: “Why bring it back?”

A Tribute to Burlesque starts at 8 p.m. on March 28 at the Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center, 85 West Newton Street, in Boston’s South End. Call (617) 247-7604.