diff --git a/python-distributed.changes b/python-distributed.changes
index a9727e4..5214ef0 100644
--- a/python-distributed.changes
+++ b/python-distributed.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mon Feb 15 11:56:35 UTC 2021 - Ben Greiner <code@bnavigator.de>
+
+- Unskip python36 build. Just skip installing optional 
+  python36-sparse for the tests. 
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Fri Feb 12 14:30:57 UTC 2021 - Dirk Müller <dmueller@suse.com>
+
+- skip python 36 build 
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Mon Feb  8 14:32:23 UTC 2021 - Ben Greiner <code@bnavigator.de>
 
diff --git a/python-distributed.spec b/python-distributed.spec
index 7f28d1d..ff35874 100644
--- a/python-distributed.spec
+++ b/python-distributed.spec
@@ -75,12 +75,12 @@ BuildRequires:  %{python_module pytest-xdist}
 BuildRequires:  %{python_module pytest}
 BuildRequires:  %{python_module requests}
 BuildRequires:  %{python_module sortedcontainers}
-BuildRequires:  %{python_module sparse}
 BuildRequires:  %{python_module tblib}
 BuildRequires:  %{python_module toolz >= 0.8.2}
 BuildRequires:  %{python_module tornado >= 5 if %python-base < 3.8}
 BuildRequires:  %{python_module tornado >= 6.0.3 if %python-base >= 3.8}
 BuildRequires:  %{python_module zict >= 0.1.3}
+BuildRequires:  %{python_module sparse if (%python-base without python36-base)}
 %endif
 %python_subpackages