Photo by Michael DeAngelis.

With the new school year underway and the Democratic primaries but one week away, we spoke with D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee about soul food, sexism, what the mayoral election means for her job, and what’s next on the agenda for DCPS.

In the three years that you’ve lived in D.C. as schools chancellor, how have your initial impressions of the District — its residents, culture, communities — evolved or changed?

This is me speaking as a resident as opposed to the Chancellor, but I feel like there’s just a tremendous amount of energy, a momentum, in the city right now. My fiancé and I were driving to a restaurant east of the river, along Benning Road on a weekend night recently, and just amazing things have happened along that little area. That place is just happening now, with lots of diverse groups of people, and I feel like three years ago that’s just something you didn’t see. I live up between 14th and 16th, and now we have the new Target in Columbia Heights, where my kids and I are at all the time. So from the resident vantage point, we just feel all the things that are happening in our day to day lives as well.