Complex sentence: Gossett was "involved in the planning stages" of "Essence" magazine, which was first published in 1970, and she was an early participant in the collective founded in 1980 by Audre Lorde and Barbara Smith.
Split into simpler sentences: Gossett was "involved in the planning stages" of "Essence" magazine, which was first published in 1970. She was also an early participant in the collective founded in 1980 by Audre Lorde and Barbara Smith.