To read and set the content of any tktextvariable descendant widget, you can use the "text" generic function. So if you have a label called lbl, you can read its current text with (text lbl) and change it with (setf (text lbl) "Hello World")
If you need to track content changes e.g. with the entry widget (which also inherits from tktextvariable), bind the "<KeyPress>" event, and you can read the new text contant also with the text function. Does this address all your needs?
Regards, Peter